


Say Goodbye to Yesterday

by lostangelssong



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Bromance, Gen, Smoking, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2015-10-11
Packaged: 2018-01-05 13:30:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1094415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostangelssong/pseuds/lostangelssong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soldier Genes are totally the same thing as Dad Genes.  ...Right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was snowing.  And the dogs were barking.  Neither of these things were out of the ordinary, since this was Alaska.  They had been laying low at the cabin since after that cluster with the Big Shell.  Otacon had been talking about getting them some sort of robot airplane, but so far that hadn’t materialized.  Snake would believe it when he saw it.  But right now, they were doing all right running Philanthropy out of their Alaska base of operations.  

It was usually pretty quiet, but not tonight.  The dogs were barking like crazy.  Snake was parked near one of the windows with the binoculars, but he couldn’t see anything due to the snow.  There were whiteout conditions. 

“Otacon!  What’s got the dogs so wound up?!” Snake called.  “Visibility is shit, thanks to the snow!” 

“Um… Snake?  You might want to come down here!” was the uncertain reply. 

That caused Snake to put the binoculars down and grumble the whole way down the stairs.  He stopped when he saw Otacon standing there with a pale haired toddler.  

“Otacon… what the hell is that?” he asked slowly. 

“It’s a toddler, Snake,” Otacon said, as if such a thing was obvious. 

“Hi!” the little one chirped.  “Are you Mr. Snake?” 

Snake sighed.  He looked at Otacon. “I know it’s a toddler.  What’s it doing here?”  Then the kid’s question registered and he blinked.  “I’m Snake.  How do you know that though.” 

“Mr. Jack sent me!” 

Snake groaned.  This all made perfect, terrible sense now.  This was Raiden’s fault 

He knelt down so he was on eye level with the little one.

“I see.  Do you have a name, kid?”

“Sunny!” 

“Uh-huh.  Well… Sunny, you know my name.  This is Otacon,” he said motioning to his friend.  “I guess Mr. Jack wanted you to stay with us, huh?” 

“Yep!  He said you guys could keep the bad guys away!” 

Snake blinked.  “Okay.  I’m gonna have you explain that in a bit.  But I’m pretty sure you’re hungry.  So…”  He picked her up, before depositing her on the couch.  “You’re gonna sit there.”  One of the dogs, Roscoe, a big husky, jumped up and nuzzled Sunny.  “That’s Roscoe.  He’s gonna keep you safe.  Otacon and I are gonna go get you some food, all right?” 

“Okay!”  Sunny smiled, and snuggled with the big dog. 

Snake took the opportunity to practically _drag_ Otacon into the kitchen.  

“What the _hell_ is Raiden thinking?!” he hissed once they were out of earshot of the girl.  “I don’t know the first thing about kids!  Do you?!” 

“Well…no,” Otacon admitted.  “But Snake, it isn’t like he stayed around so we could say no.”  

“I know!  And we can’t put her out in the snow!  I’m pretty sure that’s Olga’s daughter.  The one we’ve been looking for.  I told Raiden we’d find her, but looks like he jumped the gun.” 

“Did we ever decide what we were going to _do_ if we did rescue her, Snake?” Otacon pointed out. 

“Well… no!  But that’s beside the point!  Not bring her here!” Snake was definitely not flailing.  Soldiers didn’t flail.  He just lit a cigarette and pointedly ignored Otacon’s exaggerated coughing.  “Shit, Otacon.  I don’t know the first thing about raising kids.  And neither do you.  And now we have a toddler.” 

“You’re talking about her like she’s a puppy or something, Snake,” Otacon said, rolling his eyes. 

“I know how to take care of puppies,” Snake said.  “Toddlers are worse.  They have opposable thumbs. And you need to make sure they have beds and stuff.  I could just crate a puppy.  Or give it a pile of blankets to sleep in.”  He sighed, blowing out some smoke, before putting the cigarette out.  “We’re going to need to get her food.  Can you make her some ramen or whatever?  I have to figure out where she’s going to sleep tonight.” 

Kids needed rooms.  Sunny was big enough that she (hopefully) didn’t need a crib.  But she was going to need a place to stay.  As it was, Snake headed through the living room to at least go find the extra blankets.  In Alaska, tons of extra bedding tended to be a necessity.  When he got back with an armful of blankets, he noticed Sunny was curled up, half-asleep with the dog.  And Roscoe was doing his best teddy-bear impression.  Snake smiled a little.  

“Sunny.  You awake?” 

“Sort of..?  Is there dinner?” 

“Otacon’s working on that.  I brought you some blankets.  I want to ask you about these bad guys that were holding you.” 

Gathering information was always useful. 

Sunny proceeded to burrow into the blankets and peered at Snake from inside her makeshift nest.  “You won’t send me back?  You won’t let them come get me?” 

Snake smiled.  “I’d like to see them try.” 

Sunny considered this.  Then nodded.  “They had me on the computer all day,” she said finally.  “Doing hacking and stuff.  I didn’t know most of their names.  They’d tell me if I was really good I’d get to see my Mommy, but…”  Sunny shrugged.  “I had a picture of her.  But that’s it.” 

Snake sighed.  This was already turning out to be a mess.  “Do you know who had you?” 

“I told you! I didn’t know most of their names!  I don’t even know where we were!  I tried to find that on the internet, but the GPS software and Google Earth were no help.  I think that they had scramblers,” Sunny said.  

Snake blinked.  And he _stared_ at Sunny as all of that processed.  “They had you hacking.  And you can read?” 

Sunny looked at Snake like he had two heads.  “Of _course_ I can read.” 

“How old are you?” Snake asked.  

Sunny bit her lip.  “I don’t know.  I didn’t have birthdays,” she said softly.  

Snake sighed.  “We’ll figure that out.  Otacon’s a hacker too.   And if you believe the rumors about me – which I wouldn’t – I know how to make the impossible possible.” 

Sunny looked at him then, and for a few brief moments, Snake thought Sunny was going to cry.  And then she did something he wasn’t expecting.  She shrugged off the blankets and hugged him. 

“Please let me stay here!  Even though you’re a little scary, you’re still nice, and it’s warm here and you’re nicer than the bad men were!” 

Snake sat there for a moment or two, completely caught off guard by this, before he finally put a hand on Sunny’s tiny back.  And of course, that is when Otacon decided to come in with the food.  And he took one look at Sunny clinging to Snake, and wisely put on the coffee table before disappearing into the kitchen. 

“Sunny.  I’m not sending you back, okay?  And if the bad men come after you, then they are going to have to answer to me.  And Otacon can tell you, I’m not a fun guy to answer to,” Snake said, making a decision.  “Mr. Jack’s a friend of mine.  He wouldn’t have brought you here if he didn’t think Otacon and I could handle this.”  

Sunny looked up at Snake, sniffling a little. “Promise?” 

“Yeah.  I promise.  Now eat your dinner, before it gets cold.”  When Sunny started to do that, Snake turned his attentions to the kitchen.  “Otacon!  Are you going to come in and eat with us?  Or are you going to hide in the kitchen all night?” 

Otacon peered in, looking at Sunny devouring the ramen.  “Good thing I made some more then,” he said, before coming in with two more bowls, and giving one to Snake. 

“Sunny’s going to be staying with us,” Snake said, before starting to eat his ramen.  “We’ll have to see which of you knows more about hacking.” 

Otacon looked ready to choke on his food.  “She knows how to hack?” 

“And how to read,” Snake said.  “Sunny, you’re going to have to stay on the couch for a while.” 

“Can I keep Roscoe with me?” Sunny asked in between bites. 

“Yeah.  Either him, or one of the other dogs will stay with you.” 

Sunny blinked, and peered at Snake. “How many dogs do you have Mr. Snake?”

“Stop calling me Mister.  It makes me feel old,” Snake said.  To Sunny’s question, he had to stop and think about it.  “Well… Roscoe’s the most recent, and he makes twelve.  I was training to run the Iditarod, but some other stuff got in the way. You need sixteen dogs for that, but Otacon said twelve was enough dogs for us to take care of,” Snake said, rolling his eyes. 

“I like Roscoe,” Sunny said. “What’s the Iditarod?” 

“A dog sled race; the best one in the world,” Snake answered. 

“It’s dangerous,” Otacon said, at almost the same time. 

“Compared to blowing up Metal Gears, mushing is completely safe.” 

Sunny watched the two of them bicker, and smiled a little.  Otacon just shook his head.  “Sunny, you can call me Hal, okay?” 

“Okay!”  She smiled at Otacon.  Then she looked at Snake.  “Do you have another name, Snake?” 

“No,” Snake said, ignoring the way that Otacon was frowning at him.  

“Okay!” Sunny said brightly.  She put the now-empty bowl of ramen on the coffee table. 

Snake noticed that her eyes were starting to droop again now that she had fed.  “Sunny, get some sleep.  We’ll be here in the morning, okay?” Snake suggested.

Sunny didn’t need to be told twice, and she snuggled into her blanket nest. It wasn’t long before her breathing evened out and she settled into sleep, Roscoe settling protectively next to the couch.  Snake sighed, watching her.   

“How the _hell_ are we going to pull this off, Otacon?”

“Very carefully?” Otacon answered, watching Sunny.

“You’re going to have to look into getting that robot plane you keep talking about built sooner rather than later.”

Otacon looked at Snake quizzically at that, but before he could ask, Snake continued. 

“This place is defensible, and we can protect her if the people that were holding her come looking for her.  However, if they’re serious about coming after her, we might need something a little more mobile than a house in the middle of nowhere in Alaska.” 

“What are you going to do with all of the dogs?  We can’t take them on a robot plane, Snake,” Otacon teased. 

“I’ll figure that out.  For now, you work on the plane.  And I guess we’ll figure out what to do about getting Sunny clothes, and a bed, and shit like that.  Figures that Raiden brings her here and doesn’t even bring anything aside the kid,” Snake said. 

“Toddlers don’t come with instruction manuals, Snake.  And maybe you should treat this like a sneaking mission.  All gear is procure-on-site.”

“Very funny, Otacon,” Snake said, rolling his eyes.  “Come on.  Let’s leave her to sleep.  I want you to find out what you can about the people who were holding her.”  

Otacon nodded, and they headed out, leaving Sunny to her rest.  Snake headed out to the porch to have a cigarette.  He was already getting the feeling that this was going to be the most difficult long-term mission he’d ever had.


	2. Chapter 2

Snake was outside on the porch smoking.  He was still grumbling that he had to go outside to smoke.  It was his damn house after all!  The only reason Otacon had raised any new objections was because he said the second-hand smoke would hurt the kid.  The kid, who was still sleeping on the couch in the living room.

“I’m going to kill Raiden the next time I see him,” Snake muttered as he exhaled smoke.

Sunny, for the most part, was settling in just fine.  She’d been with them a few days.  The dogs all loved her.  She didn’t even seem to mind sleeping on the couch.  Though one thing was becoming very clear -   they were going to have to take her shopping and get her clothes soon.  Snake thought Raiden could have done a better job of rescuing Sunny.  But then, she might not have _had_ that much except the clothes on her back.

A scream from inside shook Snake from his thoughts.  It was coming from the _living room._   Snake burst back inside, a gun drawn.  Sunny was sitting up on the couch, her breath coming in little hitching gasps.  There were four dogs around, all standing in a guarding position around the couch, all growling.

“Stand down!” Snake ordered the dogs. 

They did as they were told, but they continued to crouch protectively around Sunny and the couch.

“S-Snake?” Sunny asked, uncertainly.  She sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

“It’s me,” Snake confirmed.  He put the gun away, before moving around and sitting next to her on the couch.  “You all right?”

“D-did I wake you?” 

Snake didn’t really get a chance to answer that question, because almost as soon as he sat down, she was clinging to him. 

“Nah.  I was awake,” Snake said, putting his hand on her back after a moment.

“I d-dreamed that the bad men came to take me back,” Sunny managed, before bursting into tears again.  Roscoe, who had settled on the floor near the foot of the couch, started growling.  

“Cool it Roscoe,” Snake said, glancing at the dog.  Then sighed, not quite sure what to do with this tiny crying child for a few minutes.  Then he started rubbing her back to soothe her. “Sunny.  Calm down.  I told you that if they tried to come after you, they’d have to answer to me, right?”

Sunny nodded, no good for words right now.  She clung to Snake harder, though the tears slowly started to taper down to sniffles.

“I told you that I wasn’t going to send you back.  You’re going to be staying with me, and Otacon, and the dogs from now on.  The dogs were really worried about you when they heard you scream like that,” Snake said, continuing to rub Sunny’s back. 

“Do you think I woke Hal up?” Sunny asked in between sniffles.

“Nah.  He tends to keep weird hours.  If he’s awake, he would have been down here if it was something serious.  He could also be completely tied up in his work,” Snake said, assuring her.  “Now, I’m gonna teach you some things, all right?  Otacon or I will always try to be around to protect you, just in case the bad men come looking for you.  But just in case we aren’t, or just in case I’m not right outside, it wouldn’t hurt for you to know how to take care of yourself in the meantime.”

Sunny peered up at Snake, curious now.  The sniffling had more or less tapered off.  “You’re going to teach me how to fight the bad guys?” she asked, her eyes wide.

“Yeah.  You’re still a little young to use a gun,” he said, looking at her tiny hands.  “When you’re a little older, we’ll work on that.  You have to be able to hold one first.”

“Okay,” Sunny said, a little uncertainly.  “Does this mean I get to learn kung fu?”

“Maybe.  But we’re also going to teach you how to defend yourself if some bad guys show up before Otacon or I can get to you.”

“How?” Sunny asked.

“Bear mace,” Snake said with a grin.

When Otacon came downstairs a few hours later, Sunny and Snake were deep in the middle of their lesson.  In fact, it was Sunny’s voice that was the first one that greeted Otacon.

“Hal!  You’re in the line of fire!”

“Sunny… what did I teach you about firing at friends?” Snake asked.

“Don’t shoot at friends,” Sunny recited.

“Snake… what are you teaching her?!” Otacon asked, looking, and sounding, properly scandalized.

Snake sighed.  “Sunny had a nightmare about the people that were holding her coming to get her.  I told her you and I would protect her, but I figured that she should learn how to defend herself just in case.  It’s not like I’m teaching her how to use a gun, Otacon.”

“Snake said I was too little to use a gun right now!” Sunny chimed in.

Otacon groaned.  “So then… what _are_ you using?”

“Bear mace from one of the hunting kits.  If it will take down bears, it will take down a few guys.  Sunny’s been learning safety precautions first.”

“Don’t shoot friends.  Don’t shoot the dogs.  Make sure it’s always pointed _away_ from me, because the last thing I want is an eyeful of bear mace,” Sunny recited.  “I’m being really careful, Hal!”

“Snake… I don’t know about this,” Otacon said, looking at the other man.  “I mean, she’s awfully young…”

“And she’s been through a traumatic experience.  I’d rather her know how to take care of herself on the off chance we aren’t in the immediate vicinity, Otacon, than have her jumping at shadows every five seconds,” Snake snapped. 

“How old were _you_ when you started training, Snake?” Otacon asked.

Snake just looked at Otacon sideways.  “Define training.” 

Sunny was watching them, her head moving back and forth like she was watching a ping-pong match.  Finally, Otacon threw his hands up in the air.  Either conceding the point, or realizing that this wasn’t a road he wanted to go down.

“Fine.  I’m going to go make some breakfast.  Since I’m sure that you two brave soldiers have been at this for hours with nothing to eat,” Otacon said, rolling his eyes.

“Hal… do you know how to make pancakes?” Sunny asked appealingly.

“I’ll see what we have in the kitchen,” Otacon said, ruffling her hair.  “Be careful with the bear mace, Sunny.”

“I will!”

Sunny bounded back over to Snake.  They started going through things again.  Though really, Snake had the feeling that was kind of a hollow victory.  With his luck, Otacon would get his revenge by claiming that Snake was better suited to go shopping with Sunny. 

“Snake… _does_ Hal know how to make pancakes?” Sunny asked, after about twenty minutes and no breakfast forthcoming.

“I’m sure Otacon will manage something.  How about we go we go do some reconnaissance to make sure,” Snake said with a grin.    
  
“All right,” Sunny said, looking pretty serious about the idea.  “Let’s go.”  
  
It turned out that Otacon hadn’t made pancakes.  He had made waffles.  Probably the last of the frozen waffles, which meant a grocery run might be in order soon.  Sunny didn’t seem too upset by the fact that they were waffles instead of pancakes.  They had chocolate chips in them either way.  And Sunny looked like she was trying to unhinge her jaw to eat them.  
  
“Snake… I was thinking,” Otacon began.

“That’s never a good thing,” Snake muttered. 

“Sunny needs clothes.”

“Uh-huh,” Snake muttered.  He could already tell where Otacon was going with this.

“So I was thinking you could take her shopping.”  
  
“Is this your way of getting back at me for teaching her to use bear mace, Otacon?” Snake asked.  Yep.  He’d seen that coming.

“What?  No!  But Sunny has no extra clothes and—“

“Wouldn’t it make more sense for us to order her clothes on the internet?” Snake asked.  “Taking her shopping will be its own headache.  Not to mention that I know nothing about little kid clothes.  Why can’t _you_ take her, Otacon?”

“We could all go,” Sunny suggested quietly. 

Snake and Otacon just stared at her for a few moments.  “You could supervise, Hal.  And make sure Snake doesn’t smoke around me or buy anything inappropriate.”  
  
“She has a point,” Snake said.  “And then we’ll know her size so the _next_ time, we can order stuff on the internet.” 

“See!” Sunny proclaimed, smiling at them.

“I don’t know about this,” Otacon said uncertainly.

“Otacon, it’s not going to be that hard to find the section labelled Girls.”  Or possibly Toddlers.  Sunny was kind of small.  “But you know a lot more about cute shit than I do.  It’s all the anime.  Besides, this shopping trip _was_ your idea,” Snake pointed out.

That, and there was no way in hell that Snake was taking Sunny clothes shopping alone.

Otacon looked between Snake and Sunny and sighed.  “Fine.  We’ll get going after breakfast.”

The rest of breakfast didn’t last nearly long enough.  And it wasn’t long enough before Snake and Otacon found themselves at the store.  Sunny came over and twirled around in front of Snake wearing a dress.

“What do you think?” she asked.

Snake just arched an eyebrow.

“Does it fit?  I mean, this is Alaska, Sunny.  It’s cold here.  You might not want a dress or anything.”

“But Snake!”

“Look, I don’t know much about cute shit.  You need to go talk to Otacon about that sort of thing,” Snake said with a shrug.  “I tend to be more practical about that sort of stuff.  If you want dresses, fine.  But it’s still pretty cold.  Wait til spring or something.”

“You are no fun, Snake,” Sunny said. 

“This is why we brought Otacon along, Sunny,” Snake said. 

She huffed and headed off to find Otacon.  The rest of the shopping trip was surprisingly not too terrible.  Snake vetoed stuff that was too cold or too impractical for Alaska.  And Otacon made sure that Sunny got the requisite amount of cute shit.  And they both agreed on the boots and the sweatshirt with the T-rex riding the motorcycle.

And despite having to deal with the mall and people, it was all much less dangerous than a sneaking mission, despite the annoying soccer moms.


	3. Chapter 3

“Roscoe, be _quiet_ ,” Sunny hissed, peering around quickly.

 She hadn’t seen Snake, but he had seen her. She was out near the sled. Snake had been getting the dogs ready. He’d been going to take them out to go mushing, but Roscoe had started barking. It seemed his favorite human had come to pay him a visit.

 “How am I supposed to tag along when Snake goes sled riding with you guys if you’re so _loud?_ This is a sneaking mission, after all!” Sunny scolded.

 “And you just triggered an alert,” Snake said, coming up behind Sunny. “You got caught, kid.”

 Sunny sighed. “Snake!”

 “What’s the first rule of sneaking missions, Sunny?”

 “Don’t get caught,” she sighed.

 “And what happens if you get caught?”

 “Mission’s over. Cause you’re dead.”

 “Very good,” Snake said, picking her up. “So what are you doing out here?”

 “I wanted to go sled riding with you and the dogs,” Sunny said, looking at Snake hopefully.

 Snake sighed. “Sunny… that’s not what mushing is.”

 “I don’t know what it is! Hal doesn’t let me go outside much!”

 Snake gave the house a sidelong look. “What is Otacon doing, anyway? I’m surprised you managed to sneak out of the house.”

 “He said something about working on the robot plane. That, and that he had torrented another episode of Glass Fleet,” Sunny said. “So he’s going to be busy for a while.”

 Snake considered this, before shrugging. Sunny was learning strategy. She was learning how to time her escapes. “You know, I still don’t know how torrent is a verb after all this time. It doesn’t matter. Come on. I’ll show you how to race sled dogs.”

 Sunny cheered happily, and Snake worked on getting her situated on the sled. If Otacon had a problem, well, he didn’t really have anyone to blame but himself. Seriously, Otacon had enough maternal instinct for _all_ of them. And mushing was perfectly safe. Especially when compared to blowing up Metal Gears.

 As it was, they spent several _hours_ out with the dogs, and everyone enjoyed themselves.   When they got home, and got the dogs settled, Snake got Sunny out of her snow gear and wrapped up in some blankets. Then he got himself out of the snow gear and into some warmer clothes, before he started making them both some hot chocolate. That’s when Otacon came in.

 “Uh-oh,” Sunny murmured, though she was already giggling a little. “Mission failed, Snake.”

 “Nah, the mission was an amazing success, Sunny,” Snake said, before putting a mug down in front of her.

 “Where _were_ the two of you?” Otacon asked, looking between Sunny and Snake.

 “Top secret mission, Otacon,” Snake said before taking a sip of his own hot chocolate. “I’m surprised you even noticed we were gone. I heard from some very reliable intelligence sources that you were pretty wrapped up doing science stuff.”

 Otacon looked between Sunny and Snake, and shook his head. “You know what? I’m honestly not sure that I want to know. But if Sunny gets sick or something from the whatever-it-was the two of you were doing, then _you_ are going to be the one to take care of her, Snake.”

 “Sure, Otacon,” Snake said, dismissively. Mushing was perfectly safe, and Sunny had been wrapped up, and hadn’t fallen off the sled or anything.

 Not that that kept Otacon from keeping good on his threat when Sunny came down with a cold a couple weeks later. He was acting like the little girl was _dying_ or something, and all she had was a case of the sniffles… and maybe a cough. Okay, and she had possibly gone through all the tissues in the house. Twice.

 Otacon got Snake and Sunny settled in the living room.

 “I’m going into town to get some cold medicine for Sunny. And maybe pick up some more juice and other stuff. I got some movies for the two of you to watch. Remember Snake, no smoking around Sunny.”

 “I _know_ , Otacon,” Snake said, rolling his eyes.

 “And no letting her go outside right now either!”

 “Hal… Don’t you need to get to the store?” Sunny piped up. “It’s supposed to start snowing again later today.” Really, Hal fretting over her was nice, but it was _really_ silly. She’d even been feeling better lately!

 “Right. Well, you two have fun. I’ll see you later,” Otacon said. “Snake, no crazy warrior training or anything either. At least wait til Sunny’s feeling better before you start to teach her how to sneak up on people or destroy Metal Gears or anything like that.”

“Snow storm’s coming, Otacon,” Snake said, rolling his eyes.

 “I’m going. I won’t even be gone that long,” Otacon said. Before he finally departed.

 "I thought he’d never leave,” Snake groused. “He probably left you a bunch of anime movies or something. That’s about Otacon’s speed.”

 “Hal’s nice,” Sunny said. “I’ll go put in a movie or something. Can we have popcorn?”

 “Sure,” Snake said. “I’ll go make it. We probably won’t even get ten minutes in before Otacon gets back and realizes he forgot something, or wants to check on you or something. And then I’ll have to tell him that I’m not trying to give you popcorn lungs or anything.”

 “Popcorn lung?” Sunny asked quizzically.

 “Don’t worry about it. Just put in the movie,” Snake said, before going off to make the popcorn.

 He had been wrong about how quickly Otacon would get back. And after the second movie, Snake yawned. “How many of these things did he _leave_ you?”’

 “A whole stack,” Sunny said, biting her lip. “But we’ve watched a couple of things on my list, and Hal’s not back yet. And I don’t really want to watch _Kiki’s Delivery Service_. I’ve seen that one. I watched the two that Hal left that I really like.”

 “So now what? Otacon would kill me if I took you out mushing again,” Snake said, frowning.

 “Well… we could share the TV. You can take a turn picking a movie,” Sunny suggested.

 “…Otacon will kill me,” Snake said, though that didn’t stop him from popping in _Die Hard_.

 “Worse than the bear mace?” Sunny asked, as she settled with Snake.

 “Probably.”

 Otacon didn’t get back until after Bruce Willis had finished saving the day, and Snake had decided to make him and Sunny dinner. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was better than trail rations or canned chicken soup. And it would do.

 “You’re late, Otacon,” Snake called from the kitchen.

 “I know. I ran into the snowstorm on my way home. Did you two have fun today?” he asked, coming into the kitchen.

 “Yeah. We stayed in the house, didn’t go outside, right Sunny?”

 “Right! We stayed home and watched movies all day!”

 “Really? What all did you watch?” Otacon asked.

 “Well… first we watched that movie about the two little girls and the forest spirit that was about seventeen hours long. Then we watched the one with the walking castle and the guy that was turning into the bird creature or whatever and talked in the goofy Batman voice,” Snake explained.

 “And then we watched Die Hard!” Sunny proclaimed enthusiastically.

 “Snake!” Otacon sounded utterly scandalized.

 “Sunny…” Snake groaned, but it was drowned out by Otacon being scandalized. And he shrugged. “What? It was my turn. A dumb action movie isn’t going to hurt her, Otacon. She’s probably lived through worse.”

 Otacon frowned. But before he could object, Sunny piped up.

 “It’s okay, Hal. I liked the movie. And I _told_ Snake it was his turn. Come on. You should have dinner. You’ve been gone all day.”

 That diffused the situation, and Otacon settled in for dinner. Snake helped him get the cold stuff and the rest of the supplies put away, and then afterwards, Snake got chosen to put Sunny to bed.

 “Snake?”

 “Yeah?”

 “Will you tell me a story?”

 Snake frowned. “Like what kind of story?”

 “You know… like a bedtime story.”

 Snake frowned some more. “Sunny, I don’t really know many of those. And any bedtime stories I told you would probably scandalize Otacon or something.”

 “ _Please_ , Snake?” Sunny asked.

 Snake sighed. “All right. Here goes.

 “Once upon a time there was a soldier. I mean, a warrior. And he had to go to the Land of Zanzibar in order to rescue a scienti—wizard named Marv. The warrior had been to a place called Outer Heaven a few years before, and had ended up getting into a fight with his old mentor, Big… er… King Boss.  When he got to Zanzibar, he learned that his old mentor was in charge of the rebellion and the problems that were going on in Zanzibar too.”

 “Snake?”

 “Yeah, Sunny?”

 Sunny was frowning a little bit as she listened to the story. “Is this story about you?”

 “What? No! …Maybe.”

 Sunny smiled a little. “Don’t you know any normal stories?”

 Snake scowled a little. “I answered that before I started telling you this story. If you want a bedtime story with princesses and stuff, I can always get Otacon to tell you a story.”

 Sunny shook her head.

 “No! I want to know what happened! Did you find out if Big Boss was behind everything? Did you rescue Mr. Marv?”

 Snake smiled a little. “Get comfortable, and I’ll tell you the rest of the story. But no telling Otacon, all right? He freaked out enough about Die Hard.”

 Sunny smiled back. “It’s a promise.”


	4. Chapter 4

The phone shrilling and vibrating across the night stand is what dragged Snake to consciousness. He groped around in the dark, before his hand closed on the phone. He was answering it before he was even fully conscious.

 “Whazzit?”

 “Snake?”

 The voice on the other end of the line sounded uncertain, but familiar. And when consciousness caught up with Snake, the older man sighed.

 “Raiden. What do you want?”

 “Is Sunny all right?” Raiden asked.

 Snake blinked. “No. We left her out in the snow and then the dogs ate her,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, Raiden, she’s fine. Why are you calling _now_ to check on her? I’m surprised you didn’t call sooner.”

 “Look, a lot’s happened, all right? I don’t really want to talk about it,” Raiden muttered. He sounded uncomfortable. “This was the first time I was able to get ahold of a phone.”

 Snake made a note of that, but chose not to comment on it. And he sat up in the dark and lit a cigarette, taking a long drag and exhaling before continuing. “Well, Sunny’s fine. Things have been kind of hectic lately. Otacon’s almost done getting the robot plane up and running. We might have to rehome all the dogs. That’ll be a mess.”

 “Yeah… I bet,” Raiden said, sounding slightly amused. “How many of them do you have?”

 “Only twelve.”

 “Only a dozen. Listen to you.”

 “You should have counted when you left Sunny here in the middle of a blizzard if you were that curious!” Snake countered, rolling his eyes. “By the way, your rescuing abilities suck. What if we hadn’t been home? What if she had frozen to death?!”

 “You were home! The dogs were there!” Raiden countered, sounding defensive.

 “That’s not necessarily a good assessment of if we’re home or not, Raiden,” Snake said, snorting softly. “So… since you’re suddenly so concerned about Sunny, when are you going to come visit?”

 “I gotta go,” Raiden said. And before Snake could say anything else, the line went dead.

 Snake just stared at the phone for a few minutes, before putting it back down. He worked on finishing his cigarette as he thought. That had to be one of the _weirder_ phone calls he’d had in a while, and that counted all the codec calls he’d had over the years.  He sighed once he finished the cigarette. He’d tell Hal and Sunny about the call in the morning. No sense not to.

 Breakfast the next morning was tense. Snake came into what looked like a Mexican standoff over eggs. Looked like Sunny had been trying to cook and/or practice fortunetelling again.

 “You should eat the eggs, Hal! You were up all night working!” Sunny proclaimed, her hands firmly on her hips.

 “Sunny, I appreciate you making breakfast, but I’m not really hungry,” Otacon was saying.

 “That’s what you _always_ say! And then an hour from now you’re going to go make ramen or something!” Sunny yelled, scowling thunderously.

 “Morning you two,” Snake said.

 “Snake! Hal won’t eat his eggs! And he’s saying we’re going to have to get rid of the dogs!” Sunny looked a combination of murderous and heartbroken as she relayed that news.

 Snake sighed and then glared at Otacon. “I thought you were still working on the plane. And I thought we were going to talk to her about possibly having to rehome the dogs together, Otacon,” Snake said, glaring at the other man.

 “Well, the plane is almost done,” Otacon said, suddenly feeling like he was being ganged up on.

 “Hal, couldn’t you make the plane big enough for all of us?” Sunny asked after a few moments. “You, me, Snake, and the dogs? The dogs are part of the family! We shouldn’t split up the family like that!”

 Otacon sighed and looked down at the mess of inedible eggs on his plate. “Sunny… it’s not like that… I mean… The dogs aren’t…” He sighed again, and decided to try it again. “Sunny, it’s not like we’re a normal family.”

 Sunny looked utterly _crushed_ at that. She turned away and ran upstairs, sniffling. Snake heard the door to his room slam shut. And he looked at Otacon, annoyance written clear across his features.

 “ _Great job_ , Otacon.”

 “What?! I didn’t—“

 “You spend all this time freaking out and wanting her to have a normal childhood, and then you tell her that she doesn’t have a family. And that’s right _after_ you tell her that we’re going to be getting rid of the dogs.”

 “But Snake!”

 Snake got up. “You clean up. I have to go do damage control.”

 Snake headed upstairs. He peered into his room, and Sunny was curled up on his bed with Roscoe (who was acting like a giant teddy bear) and sniffling.

 “Sunny. I’m going into town for a bit. You want to come?” Snake asked.

 Sunny didn’t really move, but she seemed to relax a little, and the sniffling started tapering down.

 “I need to pick some stuff up. Maybe stop for ice cream. Maybe talk to someone about rehoming one of the dogs, if Hal is serious about getting the robot plane up and running.” A pause as he noticed Sunny tense a little around Roscoe. “Maybe pick up some more bear mace. Maybe you can shoot Hal with it.”

 Sunny sat up, and looked tearfully at Snake. He’d had her at bear mace. “Really?” she asked, sniffling a little.

 “We can at least see what the hunting store has,” Snake said charitably.

 Sunny got up and ran over to him, hugging him a little. “Let me get my boots on.”

 Snake went back downstairs. He knew things were serious when Sunny tromped downstairs wearing a pair of his old combat boots. She glared bloody murder at Otacon, who blinked a little at the look that she was giving him. Snake noticed that Sunny didn’t say a word. She just nodded when she was ready to go. Oh boy. This was going to be interesting.

 "Otacon, we’re going out for a while. Try not to blow the house up, or do anything to the dogs until we get back, all right?” Snake said, glaring at Otacon a little himself.

 “I was just going to work on the Nomad,” Otacon said, a touch defensively.

 “Damn stupid name for a plane,” Snake muttered, before following Sunny out of the house.

 The ride into town was quiet. Sunny was flipping absently through the radio stations, and then stopped in favor of just looking out the window.

 “You know… Mr. Jack called last night,” Snake said as he drove.

 Sunny turned and looked at him. “Really?”

 “Yeah. He wanted to make sure you were all right, and that we hadn’t let you freeze to death or get eaten by the dogs or anything. I guess. I asked when he was coming to visit, and he said he had to go and hung up,” Snake said, frowning a little.

 “That’s weird. Do you think he’s in trouble?” Sunny asked.

 “I don’t know. It was ass o’clock, and I wasn’t really thinking about tracing his call. Hell, it took him this long to call and check in. If he’s wrapped up in something, my guess is it’s something pretty big,” Snake said.

 “We should rescue him!” Sunny said.

 “It’s not always that simple, Sunny.”

 Sunny sighed. “Did he sound hurt?” she asked after a moment, biting her lip.

 “No. Not like he was being forced to call, either. So if I had to guess, I would say he’s not being held hostage either,” Snake said.

 “Well… that’s good,” Sunny said. “I hope we get to see him soon. Before we go on the dumb robot plane. I don’t want to go on the plane. I hate flying!”

 Snake sighed. Sunny had good timing. They had just gotten to the store. He parked the car.

 “Sunny.”

 “I don’t want to get rid of the dogs! And Hal’s dumb because he said we’re not a family!” She had started to sniffle again.

 “Sunny, I’m gonna have one of my homesteader friends watch the dogs. We’re not going to get rid of them. And Hal’s just mad because he’s Mom,” Snake said, finding the words.

 Sunny blinked. “…Huh?” Her expression was a mixture of hope and confusion all at the same time.

 “The dogs will be fine. I’m going to have a friend watch them while we’re gone. I’ve spent too much time and effort training them to just rehome all of them,” Snake elaborated. “And don’t listen to Otacon. We _are_ a family. A really damn weird one. And Otacon’s just mad because he’s Mom.”

 Sunny giggled a little at that.

 “Does that make you like my weird Dad?” she asked after a moment.

 “Only if soldier genes are the same thing as Dad genes,” Snake said, grinning a little bit. Which was totally an admission as far as Sunny was concerned. “And Raiden is your weird uncle or weird older brother or something.”

 “So then why doesn’t Hal want to admit that we’re a family?” Sunny asked, kicking her legs a little.

 “Like I said, he doesn’t want to admit he’s Mom,” Snake said. “I don’t know. We might be a family, but it’s a really weird family. Maybe Otacon doesn’t want to admit he’s maternal. Maybe he was just defensive because you and I were both ganging up on him this morning.”  
  
Sunny looked at the building they were parked in front of.

 “Snake? Can we still go get ice cream and bear mace?”

 “Sure. After we pick up the stuff from the store and talk to my friend about the dogs. I _do_ have legitimate errands I need to run today.”

 “I’m still mad at Hal. I’m still not going to talk to him. And I still don’t see why we have to go on the dumb robot plane.”

 Snake sighed. He might not be able to explain this to Sunny. He could try, but it might not work. And if it didn’t, Otacon would just have to learn enough people skills to deal with it.

 “Sunny… remember when I first taught you to use bear mace?”

 “Yeah. You said it was in case the bad men came, and you, Hal, or the dogs couldn’t protect me, so I could protect myself.”

 “Well, the house isn’t the most defensible place. Things are starting to happen again. And Hal’s worried that no amount of me, the dogs, or him will be able to keep you safe if something happens at the house. So he’s getting the plane up and running, so we can keep you safe,” Snake tried to explain.

 “But isn’t that just running away?” Sunny asked.

 “Sometimes, you can’t hold your position, and you have to move to a safer place,” Snake said.

 “But Hal’s really smart! Why can’t he build a plane big enough for the dogs?”

 Snake sighed. “It’s not about size, Sunny. It’s about pressure and temperature. Not all animals like riding in planes. It can be a nightmare taking dogs on commercial planes, and the way Otacon is talking, this thing is going to be like some sort of robot military plane. Even one dog would be a headache, but all twelve of them just would be too much, logistically. I’ll miss them too, but it’s better if they stay here.”

 Sunny thought about that. “Does your friend race?” she asked.

 “Sometimes,” Snake said. “The dogs will get plenty of exercise.”

 Sunny sighed. “I still don’t like it. I’m going to miss them. And the house. And I’m still mad at Hal.”

 “You can be mad at Hal. Come on. Let’s go. The sooner we do errands, the sooner we get your ice cream and bear mace.”

 Sunny grinned getting out of the car. Maybe this day wouldn’t be so bad after all.


End file.
